Saints Get Early Offense, Superb Pitching in 7-0 Blanking of RedHawks

ST. PAUL, MNAugust 8, 2012

Saints Get Early Offense, Superb Pitching in 7-0 Blanking of RedHawks

August 08, 2012 at 11:09 PM

FARGO, ND (August 8, 2012) – The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks are 40-10 in their last 50 games, but six of those losses have come at the hands of the St. Paul Saints as they once again took down the team with the best record in the league with a 7-0 shutout on Wednesday night at Newman Outdoor Field.

Kyle Ruwe, who has been spectacular with the Saints since he was signed on July 24, but the only problem was he didn’t have a win to show for it. In his first two outings he left the game with the lead, but the bullpen couldn’t hold it. In his last outing it was one bad inning that cost him. On Wednesday his offense made sure there would be no blown lead as they jumped on Aaron Shafer early and Ruwe threw up goose eggs.

The Saints offense put up three runs in the second when Ronnie Bourquin led off with a walk. With one out Willie Cabrera walked. Miles Durham then drove home a run with a double off the left field walk to give the Saints a 1-0 lead. Jon Townsend followed with a two-run single to make it 3-0.

In the third Ole Sheldon led off with a single and with one out Jose Hernandez walked. Cabrera made it 4-0 with an RBI double. Durham knocked in Hernandez with an RBI single to make it 5-0. Jon Townsend finished the scoring with a two-run single to make it 7-0. Townsend finished 3-4 with four RBI. Shafer left the game after 2.2 innings allowing seven runs on seven hits while walking four. That was all the scoring in the game, but it was more than enough for Ruwe.

During his 7.0 innings of work Ruwe never looked to be in much trouble. In the first he had runners at first and second with one out, but got a fly out and a strike out to end the inning.

In the third Ruwe gave up a leadoff single to Carlo Cota, but got the top three men in the order on a fly out and back-to-back strike outs. The closest the RedHawks came to scoring against him was in the seventh when they had the bases loaded with two outs, but Ruwe got Jon Gaston to ground out to end the inning. In all, Ruwe went 7.0 shutout innings allowing nine hits while walking two and striking out five.

The Saints preserved the shutout in the ninth with reliever Bret Severtson on the mound. Cota reached on an error and Zach Penprase followed with a walk. Severtson got the next three hitters and the Saints had their fourth shutout of the season, second against the RedHawks.

The same two teams meet in the finale of the three game series on Thursday night at 7:02 p.m. The Saints are TBA while the RedHawks send RHP Tyler Herron (7-3, 4.03). There will be no radio, but the game can be heard via saintsbaseball.com.